Tolkien Estate Sues Over Unauthorized ‘Lord of the Rings’ Sequel

The estate of the famed fantasy novelist J.R.R. Tolkien accused author Demetrious Polychron of writing and selling an unauthorized sequel of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, according to a copyright lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court.

The lawsuit comes after Polychron filed his own copyright suit against the Tolkien Trust and Amazon Inc. in April, alleging that they infringed the copyrights to his sequel after the tech company released the TV series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”

The estate first learned that Polychron was selling the sequel called “The Fellowship of the King” online in March and later sent a cease-and-desist letter, according to the complaint filed Thursday. Polychron had written letters to J.R.R. Tolkien’s grandson Simon to pitch a written sequel to the trilogy beginning in 2017, although the estate reiterated its policy of not licensing writers to create sequels, the complaint said.

Over several days in March and April, the estate attempted to schedule a call with Polychron to resolve the dispute, the filing said, but he continuously postponed and claimed to be “bedridden” due to a serious illness.

“Plaintiffs were therefore surprised to discover that, on the same day Defendant claimed to be physically incapable of correspondence, Defendant had in fact filed a lawsuit in this District Court against the Tolkien Estate and others,” the complaint said.

Polychron’s suit claimed that while his book was “admittedly inspired” by “The Lord of the Rings,” he had developed a wholly original book and concept, which the estate and Amazon then used for the 2022 TV series set in the same fantasy universe as the original trilogy.

The sequel “incorporates an astonishingly wide range of copyright-protected elements from the Tolkien Canon,” the estate’s complaint said. Among them are15 poems or other passages copied verbatim, hundreds of the original’s characters, and the recycling of the entire plot premise of the trilogy.

The complaint cited numerous online reviews of the sequel indicating that readers were aware that it is an unauthorized derivative work.

An attorney for Polychron didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Klaris Law PLLC represents the Tolkien Trust.

The case is The Tolkien Trust v. Polychron, C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-cv-04300, 6/1/23.

To contact the reporter on this story: Isaiah Poritz in Washington at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tonia Moore at [email protected]; Jay-Anne B. Casuga at [email protected]

AI-powered legal analytics, workflow tools and premium legal & business news.

Log in to keep reading or access research tools.